CBI lens on roles of 4 IB men in Ishrat case

The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the Ishrat Jahan encounter, is likely to mention the role of four officials in its supplementary chargesheet expected this month. The officials include a retired special director, then working with Intelligence Bureau’s Gujarat Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB).

“We have probed the role of four IB officials, three of them serving, in the conspiracy behind the fake encounter. Their roles would be mentioned in the supplementary chargesheet that we will submit by the month-end,” said a CBI source.

These four officials had allegedly collaborated with accused officials of the Ahmedabad crime branch (ACB) in the interception and illegal detention of the four persons who died in the June 2004 encounter — Jishan Johar, Amjad Ali, Javed Shaikh and Ishrat Jahan.

A joint SIB-ACB team had detained Jishan Johar in the last week of April 2004 with the help of two informants, who were deployed by an intelligence official and the then assistant commissioner of police in Gujarat.

Jishan Johar was then confined at house number 164/165 in Gota Housing and put under audio tap and physical surveillance.

Separate CB-SIB teams had picked up and detained Amjad Ali on May 26, 2004, around Ahmedabad, and Ishrat Jahan and Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai from a toll booth in Vasad on June 12, 2004, respectively.